The Basics of Filing an Annual Compliance Report under the POSH Act

🔊 Listen to this Are you ready?
Each year, every organization is legally mandated to file an “Annual Compliance Report (ACR)” under Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 [POSH Act] to ensure that their POSH compliance is absolute and complete.

Before we begin, here are three things you should know about filing an Annual Compliance Report-

1. Section 21 of the POSH Act mandates that the Internal Committee (IC) of an organization is duty bound to submit the ACR to the Employer as well as the District Officer.
2. The ideal time to file an ACR is after the completion of a calendar year i.e. in January.
3. Finding an expert External Member is crucial to help your IC file a comprehensive and legally compliant ACR.

Rule 14 to the POSH Act lays down the guidelines of filing an ACR. It states that the annual report which the ICs have to prepare under Section 21, shall have the following details:-

1. number of complaints of sexual harassment received by the IC in the year;
2. number of complaints disposed off during the year after due investigation;
3. number of cases pending for more than ninety days, if any;
4. number of workshops or awareness programme that the organization conducted for awareness about and prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace;
5. nature of action taken by the employer against each complaint in which the Respondent was found guilty.

While filing this report, it’s also important to keep in mind that-

1. Personal Identifiers of parties to a complaint are not shared within the report i.e. names and other details of the complainant, respondent and the witnesses.
2. Details of an inquiry of a conciliation process recorded during an investigation should not be included in the report.
3. Copy of the recommendations made by the IC with respect to a complaint shall not be disclosed.

It is pertinent to note that the ACR is separate from the declaration that is filed before the ROC. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, through a notification dated July 31, 2018, amended the Companies (Accounts) Rules 2014, in accordance with the request made by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare. By this amendment, it is now compulsory for a company to make a statement in the Director’s Report that it has complied with the provisions regarding the constitution of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). This is a disclosure made by a company in the Director’s report and is filed before the Registrar of the company.

It’s important that an organization files its ACR in a timely and legally compliant manner. Ungender provides end-to-end POSH compliance services to organizations that also include filing the annual compliance report. Alternatively, companies can also opt for SaaS platforms like Conduct to ensure their POSH compliance and ACR filing is completed in a time bound manner.

The aim of the ACR is to reflect the steps that have been taken by an organization for prevention and redressal of incidents related to sexual harassment. If an organization has not undertaken the necessary steps of POSH compliance, it can attract a fine of Rs.50,000 for each instance of non-compliance and/or cancellation of business licenses. Which is why, it’s imperative that companies get their POSH compliance in order before it is time to file the Annual Compliance Report.

What is are the consequences of non-compliance of the POSH Act? 🤔🛑

Non-compliance can lead to an imposition of fine as well as cancellation of business licenses of an organization. ❌ pic.twitter.com/USKq1QFSDE

— Ungender (@UngenderTalks) October 13, 2021